Lady of the Moon
by Kailee
Summary: Joey Wheeler is not the bright, happy boy we all know and love all the time. Sometimes... sometimes it's hard to keep up the mask... [character death]


**Lady of the Moon**

**Rating: **PG-13

**Warning: **angst, character death, abuse

**Summary: **One evening after Duelist Kingdom, Jou's dad abuses him – not for the first time. Jou crawls to his room, and sits on his window seat, reflecting and praying to . . . the Lady of the Moon.

-----

My mother yells, and I hear the door slam as she walks out of the house. I hear Shizuka scream for me. Running out of my room, I see my mother get into the car, my little sis in the back seat, still screaming for me.

"No! Mummy! Come back! Take me with you!" I cry. "Shizuka . . ." I finish in a whisper as the car drives away at a rip-roaring speed.

My father is sitting on the living room couch, looking depressed. He makes it look like he's watching the TV when he sees me, but I can tell he's not. He holds out his arms to me, and I melt into them. We cry for hours, just wishing Jean (my mother) and Shizuka would come back.

Well, that was then.

Now – it's different.

-----

_Lady of the Moon, comfort me in my sorrow._

As Matthew - I don't call him my father anymore -, yells at me, I crouch in the corner, desperately trying to make myself smaller so as to avoid the beating that was sure to come.

_Lady of the Moon, help me please._

Matthew looms nearer, and I notice his eyes. 'Oh Gods, he's bought more of that . . . that stuff,' I think, as he lifts the chair leg - his favourite instrument of torture.

_Lady of the Moon, shine your soft light on me - take me away from this._

I wince as the first blow falls. I don't cry out . . . not anymore. I used to, but now it doesn't hurt as much. I know how to find a little dark place in my mind where I go to escape the pain. It'll be there, waiting for me when I resurface, but for now? For now, I can retreat into myself. Away from the pain.

_Lady of the Moon, guide me to my salvation._

My salvation. My dark place. Nothing can reach me there, not anger, not loneliness, not sorrow, not pain. Not light. The light is too pure for me, an unworthy creature of the shadows. Of the night.

_Lady of the Moon, quell the emotions that make me a son of the day. Make me yours._

After the beating, I crawl away to my room, just barely noticing what I am doing. Matthew slams the door after me, an echo of the memory of my mother leaving. I hear it lock. I stand, and make my way over to the window seat that he had built for me before Jean left. Before my mother took my joy, my light - my Shizuka. My reason for living. I can't take this anymore.

_Lady of the Moon, forgive me for my thoughts of the light._

I stare at a photo on my desk. A picture, taken more than seven years ago. At a country fair. There's me, sitting on Matthew's shoulders, making the 'victory' sign with my fingers at the camera. There's Jean, her arm wrapped around Shizuka, only three or four years old at the time. Matthew and Jean, Jounouchi and Shizuka - the perfect family. Not so perfect anymore.

_Lady of the Moon, hold me in your embrace. The cold light of your night-time beauty._

I open the window. Leaning into the crisp air of the evening, I survey the street below. I resurface from my dark place, and seem to wake up from a trance. Grimacing at the pain in my joints, I pull back sharply from the window - ever since the day atop the battlements with Kaiba duelling Yuugi, I have hated heights.

_Lady of the Moon, wash away all of my fears, so that I may become one with you._

I take a deep breath, and move close to the edge again, and stare over the sides. I no longer feel afraid, almost as if I can feel the phobia disappearing. I study the people walking below - not as many now as there were before. One particular person catches my eye. Tri-coloured hair is noticeable, even from up here. 'Oh no! If Yuugi sees me like this . . . I don't know what he'll say, or think.'

_Lady of the Moon, send me some of your strength to do what I must._

As Yuugi draws nearer to the building, I exhale slowly from the breath I took before. My hands clutch the sides of the windows as I lean further and further. My grip cramps, and I realise that it is now or never. I suddenly let go of the sides, and tumble over the edge of the window.

_Lady of the Moon, I am yours._

_-----_

**Yuugi's POV **

I gasp in horror as I see someone fall from Jou's apartment block. A figure with blonde hair and a willowy form.

"Jou!" I yell, startling everyone near me as I start to sprint towards his building. Soon someone catches on, and I feel swept long by the crowds as people rush towards the broken body on the ground.

I hear someone calling for the ambulance. A mobile phone is snatched out of my hands in the attempt of dialling the emergency number. I see people all around me dialling, and I can always replace the phone, so it doesn't worry me.

I squeeze through the crowd, pushing and shoving so I can get to Jou. I suddenly 'pop' through the front line of the crowds, and run to Jou. I grab for his hand, and feeling it icy cold, start to sob.

-----

**General POV **

As the hospital attendants arrive, they start yelling for the crowds to clear.

"ALRIGHT PEOPLE, MOVE ASIDE!" bellows one with a very loud baritone. Swiftly a path to the boy cleared. There was another youth with him, sobbing softly.

"Son, please move aside," asked another attendant kindly. The boy shook his head, clutching tighter at the boy's hand. The departed boy was obviously his friend, probably a very close one, so the attendant decided to let him stay. They lifted the deceased gently onto a stretcher, careful not to disturb him any more than was necessary. The youth seemed not to be able to take his violet eyes from his friend.

-----

**Jou's POV **

I floated above my body, confused. I assumed that death was an all-consuming darkness. Instead, my spirit seems to be purely made of light. I watched Yuugi stand by my coffin, at my funeral. Anzu was there, and so was Honda. To my surprise Mai seemed to have made it from - well, from wherever she went after Duelist Kingdom. The Kaiba brothers were there too, amazingly enough. I mean, Mokuba was probably sincere enough, but Seto? I had no idea why he was there. I thought he hated me.

The expression on his face, though . . . it was sadness personified.

Yuugi seemed, well, distant from the others. I saw Anzu and Honda exchange worried looks over his head.

Anzu had red puffy eyes, with running mascara. Honda noticed, and handed her a tissue, and she smiled wanly at him.

Honda looked as though he was in denial. He kept shaking his head, as if he wanted to wake up from a bad dream.

"Your friends are broken without you, Jounouchi."

I spun around as well as a spirit can. A man with dark skin, hair and eyes looked at me.

"Who . . . who are you?" I asked. My voice sounded as though it was coming from a long way off. In a way, it was.

"Me? Just a guide. My mistress sent me to help you to her presence."

"Your mistress?" I said, tilting my head to one side. He just smiled serenely at me. Just then, someone caught my eye. Someone with long, red hair, and bandages over her eyes. Shizuka! My light . . .

"She's confused as to why you would do something like this," came a feminine voice from near the dark man. A voice I had heard in my dreams, many a night.

I whipped around to face her. Surrounded by a softly glowing white light, with a smile on red lips. A white robe with a grey sash was the attire that the Lady of the Moon, my goddess, chose to wear in front of me. Green eyes regarded me from underneath jet lashes. Silvery coloured hair flowed around the goddess he had believed to have deserted him in his hour of need.

"Jounouchi, I never deserted you. I have been with you since the day you started to whisper in your mind to me. Who do you think it was who guided you to Yuugi? Who was it that planted the idea in Shizuka to send you a tape informing you of her condition worsening? Who was it that prevented you from the rage of Pegasus Crawford?" she asked softly, in a voice that sounded like a choir of angels.

"You," I whispered.

"Yes - me. Now, Jounouchi, it's time to come home." She extended her arms to envelop me, and I melted into them, just like I had when Jean left and I went to Matthew for comfort.

-----

**General POV**

Yuugi hadn't spoken a word since Jou's death. Until his funeral, that is.

As six of Jou's closest friends and families mourned his death, a blinding flash of light and a high-pitched keening noise temporarily crippled them. When they recovered enough to look up and unblock their ears, Jou was standing there, transparent. He grinned at the group. Yuugi was the first to move towards him.

"Jou?" he asked softly, afraid that anything louder than a whisper might shatter the image as if he was a cloud.

"Yeah Yug', it's me. Well, not me, but . . . y'know what I mean?" he finished, waving his hands in a circular motion to emphasise his point.

"Jou, why?" asked Yuugi, completely disregarding his former best friend's comment.

"Why? Because I couldn't take it anymore," Jou replied, suddenly serious.

"Take what?" asked Anzu, finally finding her voice.

"The abuse," he said simply. Honda registered it instantly who and what he was talking about, and Seto did too after his treatment from Gozaburo. Mokuba and Anzu took a minute, and Yuugi didn't get it.

"Huh?" he puzzled, tilting his head.

"Later, Yuugi," promised Anzu. He looked ready to protest, but gave in as he realised Jou didn't have all day.

"I take it this isn't forever, mutt?" stated Kaiba.

"No. I have about two more minutes," he affirmed, for once not being a jerk to Kaiba. It wasn't the time for enmity. Shizuka wasn't about to let her brother go.

"No! Jou, stay here with me! Don't leave, please!" she cried. He reached out to her, and she hugged him. He was solid, despite not looking it. Jou stroked her hair for a few seconds, and then kissed the top of her head lightly.

"I won't be completely gone, sis. I'll be checking in on you," he said, looking up at the others. "On all of you, from time to time. Just to see how things are going. I can't leave all of you . . . it's impossible. I'm bound to you."

Just as he finished speaking, he began to fade away on a cloud of light.

"Jou!!" they all yelled, except for Kaiba, who never gave in to displays of public weakness. He just said two words.

"Goodbye - puppy."

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